Time Warner Cable announced yesterday that it had begun notifying customers of an increase on the rent paid each month for cable modems (subscribers to the company's base cable internet plan have been paying $3.95 per month to lease a modem since last November).

Time Warner Cable is now increasing the monthly rate for leasing the modem to $5.99 per month starting with the next billing cycle. A few dollars doesn't sound like huge hike, but the additional fee will reportedly generate an extra $150 million in revenue this year alone for the cable giant.

Apparently, only customers on the company's most popular plan will pay the extra fee for modem rental. Customers who are on more expensive and higher-end cable internet packages won't be affected by the change in rental rate.

Time Warner Cable says that the fee hike stems from costs associated with providing the modem.

Despite the fact that the lease amount has increased to $5.99, Time Warner Cable’s fee is still lower than competitors such as Comcast, which charge between seven dollars and eight dollars per month.

Of course, one way to avoid the fee altogether is to purchase your own modem from Time Warner Cable’s approved list. By going this route, the modem would “pay for itself” within a year or less.

I really don't get beaten at all. My service is amazing, the picture quality is great, the software running on their hardware is more responsive and visually more appealing, we are paying Uverse LESS than we did TWC but have a much better channel package, where is the part where I am being beaten up? Verizon FIOS is the only service in the US (excluding google fiber) that is superior to my Uverse experience but it also comes with a higher price tag and not available in my area.Nopes I am not being beaten at all. Until the law changes and we can pick and choose what individual channels we buy this is the closest to happy with my cable provider I can get.

Glad that works for you but doesn't work for my household. The bare minimum $30 a month for TV doesn't suit us we have everything but the sport and international packages we have everything else including all the premium channels like HBO. We have Netflix but hardly ever use it since there isn't much content in their streaming service and we have already watched literally everything worth watching and only keep the subscription trying out new shows they have been adding, and everything else I watch for free on Vodly formerly known as 1channel.I used to have an htpc but I was the only one who knew how to use it, not everyone is as tech savvy.